Lady Gaga is known for creating hit songs—and now she's hoping to achieve success in the startup world, too.

The musician is a founder of a new cosmetics company called Haus Beauty, the existence of which was originally discovered by a website called The Blast via trademark filings back in May. And now, reports have emerged that venture capital investors have taken an interest, with Lightspeed Venture Partners making an investment in Haus Beauty, per Recode.

The funding comes amid a boom in venture capital for US-based makeup and beauty companies. So far in 2018, investors have poured about $464 million into startups in the space, per the PitchBook Platform. That's already more than any other year in the last decade, and we're only a little over halfway through 2018 [ PitchBook ]

Last night, the controversial VC and Hyperloop One cofounder tweeted, “How can I help you?”–and it appears to be a genuine question for his 91,000+ followers. Pishevar has been entertaining requests for job referrals, project funding, and help with student loans. [ Fast Company ]

Alibaba's Ele.me Seeking at Least $2 Billion in Funding, Sources Say

Ele.me, the food delivery platform acquired by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is on the hunt for $2 billion of new financing to help in its fight against Meituan Dianping, people familiar
with the matter said. The Chinese company is seeking funds from potential investors such as venture capital firms to expand a business that’s burning enormous amounts of cash, according to the people, who requested not to be named because the matter is private. While it’s unclear how big a stake is available in Ele.me, which was valued at $9.5 billion in April’s Alibaba acquisition, investors would get a piece of a company that’s a candidate for a future initial public offering, the people added. [ Bloomberg ]

Caitlin Strandberg is a leading young mind in venture capital as a principal at Lerer Hippeau. In 2017, she was named to the Under 30 venture capital list for her work as vice president at FirstMark Capital. [ Forbes ]

Undo gets $14M to scale to meet the software accountability challenge

Undo, a long time player in the debugging tools space, offering its program execution capture and replay technology to help others diagnose software failures, has closed a $14 million Series B round led by Cambridge Innovation Capital, the Cambridge, UK-based builder of tech and healthcare companies. [ Tech Crunch ]

Kleiner Teams With Chelsea Clinton to Boost Telemedicine Birth Control

The San Francisco company aims to serve young women who lack access to reproductive health services in rural and conservative parts of the U.S. Three years after it launched, Texas and Indiana are among Nurx’s top five markets, and demand has been so strong that it has offset opposition from groups in North Carolina. [ WSJ ]

GoGoVan raises US$250m in first phase of new funding round

GOGOVAN - an on-demand delivery van service backed by Singapore's Centurion Private Equity and Singapore Press Holdings - has raised US$250 million in new funding. The sum represents the "first phase of its new round of funding", the startup said on Friday.

GoGoVan chief executive and co-founder Steven Lam told The Business Times that the company could be fundraising for a second phase
of this financing round, given strong interest by other investors. [ Fortune ]

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